The salt and pepper hair has grown saltier by the year, but that’s not what puts things into perspective for Damon Floyd. As he looks across the field each fall Friday night and recognizes fewer familiar faces among the opposing coaches, that’s when Bradley Central’s longtime head football coach is reminded just how much of a fixture he has become.
Entering his 20th season in charge at his alma mater, Floyd now ranks as the dean of Chattanooga-area coaches and is one of only four among his peers across the surrounding area who has remained at one school for at least 10 years. Making up the rest of the list are McMinn County’s Bo Cagle, who is entering his 18th season, 16-year veteran Bob Ateca at Grace Academy, and Northwest Whitfield’s Josh Robinson, who is going into his 15th year.
In the past four years alone, 35 of the area’s 48 teams in Tennessee and Georgia have undergone head coaching changes. That includes Brainerd, Chattanooga Christian, LaFayette and Meigs County making two hires apiece in those four years.
Bradley Central’s Floyd a rare breed among prep football coaches
There are a few local coaches with plenty of overall experience, including legendary Boyd Buchanan coach Gary Rankin — the state’s all-time wins leader who is just one victory shy of 500 for his career — and Polk County’s Derrick Davis. Rankin, however, has only been with the Buccaneers for three years (after working at three other schools previously), while Davis returned to his alma mater three years ago after spending the three previous seasons coaching elsewhere.
When Floyd stepped onto Bradley’s field for his first game as head coach in 2006, MySpace was the dominant social media platform and Motorola flip phones were still the most popular hand-held device.
“I was just 28 when I started and was the youngest head coach around,” Floyd said. “Now I look around and I’m one of the oldest. That all flipped really quick. Honestly, I really hadn’t planned on ever becoming a head coach, but I got the job because nobody else wanted it.
“I had been an assistant on staff for three years and the team hadn’t been very good, so it wasn’t a job a lot of people were interested in at the time.”
Floyd took over a Bradley program that had gone 1-9 the season before and had not experienced a winning season in five years — compiling a 9-41 overall record during that span.
In his first game, he guided the team to a 14-point victory over Warren County, and his Bears in 2010 began a streak of 14 consecutive playoff appearances. That string was snapped last year largely due to Bradley ending the season with nine starters unable to play due to injury.
Having set the school’s single-season rushing record (2,641 yards) as a senior, he now also enters his second decade of coaching as Bradley’s all-time wins leader (127-86 overall record). In the 108-year history of Bears football, his teams have produced seven of the top 10 highest-scoring offenses and have set 20 school records for offensive production.
“I’m proud of the longevity and that we’ve put pride back into the program,” Floyd said. “We’ve gone from being considered one of the worst to one of the most respected teams in the state.
“I still enjoy trying to build a team to get ready for one common goal, and there’s nothing like the excitement of Friday nights when you’re walking out on the field before a game.”
Whether it be for financial reasons or to pursue opportunities at more accomplished programs, the new normal for head coaches at the high school level is to not put down roots. Longevity is uncommon.
That’s why Floyd is not only one of the most veteran coaches in the Chattanooga area but also is in rare company among the rest of the state’s programs, as only five other coaches across Tennessee have remained at their respective school for more than 20 years.
“A lot of coaches are looking to go where they believe they are set up to win more,” said Grace’s Ateca. “I like to win too, but that’s not why I got into it. I enjoy coaching and teaching kids and impacting their lives for the future.”
Five years ago, there were nine area coaches who had been at their program for more than a decade, including McCallie’s Ralph Potter, South Pittsburg’s Vic Grider and Tyner’s Wayne Turner — three of the all-time winningest coaches in state history.
Cagle is 116-82 with McMinn County, including 8-9 head-to-head against Floyd, and has guided his teams to the playoffs 11 times. Robinson became Northwest Whitfield’s all-time wins leader during the 2022 season and enters this fall 96-58 overall.
As he enters his 16th season, Ateca has put together one of the most unique coaching tenures anywhere in the state. He guided the Golden Eagles to six TSSAA playoff appearances in his first 10 years, then after the school’s campus and athletic facilities were leveled by a tornado in the spring of 2020 — which also decimated the team’s roster numbers — he directed the move to eight-man football.
The next season Grace won 11 games and the state’s eight-man independent league championship. As school enrollment and the team’s roster size has steadily increased, Grace will rejoin Division II-A region play this fall.
“I just really enjoy the type of kids we have. They want to be coached,” Ateca said. “I had moved around and coached at four other programs, but once I got here, it felt like home, and I just enjoyed settling in as I grew older.
“I’m not really sure what I would do with myself if I got away from coaching. There’s something about spending so much time being around kids that they kind of help you feel young, too.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com.